Sunday, 24 January 2010

Ever felt too daft to craft???

The other day, I saw a wonderful tutorial for making singed chiffon roses on one of my favourite blogs, Robin's Egg Blues. The tutorial was so good and made it look fairly easy, I just had to try it, just had to.

So I wombled off into town on Friday and bought a couple of bits of chiffon. Saturday, I got out a little tealight candle, pinned my petal templates to the ever-shifting chiffon and cut them out. Lit the candle. Snuffed the candle, because I had of course forgotten to find the long handled tweezers. First aid box raided, I relit the candle, picked up the first petal and singed away! Woohoo, I thought, this is not at all bad. 10 minutes, slightly crisped fingers and lots of singed petals later, I was ready to assemble a flower. Ah, errmm, that turned out to be not quite as easy as I had thought. Chiffon is darned slippery and even with singed edges, it has a life of its own. And don't even think about breathing when you are trying to pile up chiffon petals in a rose shape! The slightest bit of huff puff and they end up everywhere, lol. In the end, I gave up on pre-sewing assembly and pushed the sewing needle through each petal separately, sort of arranging them into a flower shape as I went along.

Hmmm. It looked lopsided. It didn't look much like the gorgeous roses on Robin's Egg Blues' tutorial. I had a close look at my petals, and discovered that I didn't do that good a job of singeing either, sigh. There were many un-singed edges, merrily fraying away, grrr. You don't even have to look very closely at the photographs to see them, lolol -

Undeterred by this dismal failure, I tried again. Ouch, metal gets hot when held over a candle, even long handled tweezers. I was determined not to have any fraying edges on my petals this time though. Good plan. Bad execution. I think I may have overdone the singeing just a tad, lol, my petals are very curly -
So now I am sitting here, looking at this pile of supercurly chiffon petals, trying to tell myself that yes, it is worth assembling them into another flower. I am not convinced, sigh. I really feel daft, I mean, come on, it can't be that difficult to find just the right level of singe, can it? Perhaps I am just overenthusiastic with my singeing. One thing I know though, I need a heck of a lot more practice, lololol. Watch this space.

24 comments:

Oh but you tell it so well, Liz! I'm not sure I would be any better than you, and it has to be admitted that your first rose is absolutely beautiful, even if it's going to fray later... The second set of prawn crackers? Well, it will be interesting to see the result!

That's hysterical Liz! Who cares if it's not all even. That flower you made is absolutely beau-ti-ful!! I'd never have the patience for such fabrics and fiddliness. Go on, you might as well make it up, it may surprise you into being a very pretty little rose.

I think it's lovely and I like the slightly frayed edges - it all adds to the charm and for a first attempt well...! Rome wasn't built in a day and I am sure you will produce some stunning flowers from those prawn carckers as Floss calls them!

Lizzie-Liz, You have me on the floor laughing! I think your rose is beautiful and the frayed edges give it an old world charm. Keep making them!! Just wear some fireproof gloves. Know a fireman? Hugs to you! Kim

You really have made me smile tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your little story and could almost see you singing and stacking and holding your breath. Well I think you are being far too critical. Your rose is a stunner and any imperfections have made it more perfect.I think your "over singed" as you put it petals would look great too.Ooo, you could try wearing rubber gloves to see if that helps with the slippage. lolololoRachael XX

I was at Robin Eggs Blue. I just love her free graphics. Saw the chiffon tutorial too. Haven't tried it,yet! I think you did a wonderful job. Great post story too! Hilariously funny. Sorry I missed the giveaway. It looks scrumptious.

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